Aperture22 reads camera, lens, exposure, GPS, and editing data from your photo's EXIF and XMP metadata. The more metadata your photo carries, the deeper the coaching gets — analysis can reference your exact aperture choice, your Lightroom adjustments, even how the image was developed from RAW.

You can upload stripped photos too — Aperture22 can still read composition, lighting, and style — but technical and editing coaching layers won't have anything to ground themselves in.

Prefer to keep your image stripped for privacy? You can attach a sidecar file (e.g. .xmp) and Aperture22 will read your gear and adjustments from there.

Bottom line: embedded data or sidecar gives you the full coaching depth. Stripped is fine — you'll just get a narrower, vision-focused analysis.